High Load on *nix servers

To check and reduce the load, I am pasting the commands which will provide you the outputs concerned with high load. Accordingly, you can troubleshoot the issue to reduce the load.

1.Get server uptime with uptime command:

$ uptime

2. Gather information like tasks, memory, cpu and swap through Top command:

$ top -cd3

Use "Shift +m" to order the memory usage from maximum to minimum. You can use "Shift +o" to choose different options also.

3. See the Load average, memory usage and CPU usage with Sar command:

$ sar
$ sar -q
$ sar -r

4. Check top 10 memory hungry processes using following command:

$ ps auxxx --sort=-rss | head -11

5. Check top 10 cpu hungry processes using following command:

$ ps auxxx --sort=-%cpu | head -11

6. Check mpstat result with following:

$ /usr/bin/mpstat -P ALL

7. Check iostat with iostat command.

$ iostat

8. Check free RAM on the server:

$ free -m

9. Use pstree to look for any suspicious processes or unusually high number of a particular service.

$ pstree

10. List of users currently logged in with w command.

$ w

happy *nixing :-)